i’m jumping ahead of myself slightly, but bear with me…

my 11yr old is really taking to mountainbiking, both real xc and groomed trails (now that we actually have some in cornwall). he’s on a scott scale 24 now but has pretty much outgrown it, i have an almost finished 26″ wheel bike built around an old identiti dr jeckyll waiting.

but its quite heavy and as the scott is worth a few quid, plus he has a great 16″ wheel bmx also out grown, i’m thinking it may be better to start looking for a full suss xc frame for him.

anyone have any suggestions for slightly older ones to look out for, i’d be looking to spend about 300quid but mainly it would have to be available in a very small size?

a decent hardtail would be worth thinking about too for lightness maybe.

Why FS? For that budget I’d be looking at really small carbon hardtails or similar. I’m guessing he’s going to be rather light, so the reduced heft of a hardtail will be more advantageous than suspension which he’ll struggle to compress!

Jeeze the weight of all that suspension will kill him. As above, get him a decent hardtail, even remove the unnecessary suspension fork and fit a nice smooth-riding carbon fork from eXotic, he won’t notice the lack of suspension but he will appreciate the lack of weight. Also fit it with a fast, lightweight XC tyre like a Panaracer Fire XC Pro in the narrow size.

Tyre advice seems reasonable, except Fire XC Pros are not light, and they’re shit (IMO). Rons or something would be a better better.

If it were me I’d be tracking down an old 28mm SID, rather than rigid, but agree with the sentiment.

yes thinking about it hardtail is the best idea.

i loved xc pros by the way, but for fast rolling i prefer small block 8s.

Had a similar situation myself. No full sus under 1500 was light enough for him so got a cheap ragley marley frame instead. Put some old coil forks on which have proved no good so now I need to get him some single airs…more expense :/

Edit: 12yr old btw

…more expense :/

ha, tell me about it. i have truly made a rod for my own back. my boy also surfs, skates and windsurfs… all with the rule that you only get good kit when you prove you can justify it. and the little sod is rapidly proving he can!

Bit of a catch 22 situation isn’t it though. Crap bike and kit = potential crap mountain bike experience. Im seeing how keen my lad is before I ‘fork out’ as he’s been a bit lazy recently.

Small Sub-3 ? There’s a horrific orange coloured example on FB (under the “Bikes for Sale” group).

Tiny frame!

My wife is a tiny bit over 5′ tall. She used to ride a 13″ Marin Mount Vision.

13.5″ Rockhopper from eBay, now also sporting Rebas from eBay… for my 11 year old (now just turned 12).

[/URL]